


Family Album

by Ryo Hoshi (Hoshi_Ryo)



Series: Family Album [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Siblings, Bad dates, Crossdressing, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other, Parenthood, Sibling Love, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-12
Updated: 2013-08-12
Packaged: 2017-12-23 05:23:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/922515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoshi_Ryo/pseuds/Ryo%20Hoshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In another world, Rose and Dave got to grow up together, sticking close through all of life's ups and downs, right until the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Album

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [No Greater Love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/921514) by [Wildcard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildcard/pseuds/Wildcard). 



> _In another world, they’d be siblings that grew up together._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Written because I wanted to explore the glimpses given of that other world mentioned in _No Greater Love_.

 

They had made the news, as babies, due to the serendipitous decisions of various people, who had wanted to find out who had abandoned a newborn, then noticing that there was a second abandoned newborn whose DNA tests indicated they were siblings. The mystery of exactly who had, in the space of a few days, simply abandoned their twins was never solved, but the public response had gotten them brought together and a special effort made to ensure they got placed as a set. 

Of course, this was not the story as Rose would tell it. Rose would be careful to mention that there had been arguments in the news, ranging from if their parents ought to be found to who should be permitted to adopt them. It had worked out in the end, and if Dave tended to be more inclined to spin things in a Hollywood style, she was fine with letting him. 

They both agreed that the Lifetime TV Movie made about that was so atrocious that it wrapped back into a bizarre sort of awesome. 

Dave, though, was sure that he could make movies that did that better. 

 

Dave knocked on the door frame. "I know you've got one of my clubbing outfits in your closet, sis. Throw it on." 

Her lips turned down in a disapproving mou. "I'm working on my homework. Like you should be." 

"Rose, we both know that neither of us got assigned any. You're working on your novel." 

That got a sigh: Dave was right. "Alright. Are you planning on cross-dressing again?" 

"You know you like it." 

Rose had to admit to herself that was true, though she liked it more for the mind games, instead of the irony Dave insisted was present in letting guys hit on them, thinking they were a pair of twin girls. Neither of them were interested in dating the type, but their expressions when they realized Dave was a guy... 

However, Rose was not going to ever admit to Dave that. That was part of the game. 

 

Rose hugged Dave, gently. "...You're sure about this guy, Dave?" 

Dave nodded. "Yeah. He just..." He shrugged slightly. "Something just feels right." 

She hesitated. "Take your sword anyway." 

Rose did not bother, later, with any 'told you so's, just helped him clean up and calm down. 

A week later, he found himself invited along for a lunch by his sister, just her, Kana, and one of Kana's friends. He wore the obnoxiously red scarf Rose had knit for him. 

T.Z. loved it. 

 

Dave leaned against wall outside the hospital, cell phone against his ear, listening to Rose's phone ring. It shouldn't be that late in New York. 

"Brother, dear, it better be impor..." 

"T.Z.'s in the hospital again." 

Rose's one-word reaction was actually a rather accurate description of how Dave felt. "Do you need me to fly out?" 

"I...yeah, actually. Bring a dress." 

"The premier?" 

"I don't think T.Z. will mind if you're my date." 

"...Kana might." 

"...I do not want to know, Rose. I do not want to." 

 

Four novels, three movies, and two deaths later, Rose looked Dave over. "...You kept the scarf." 

"Yeah. Figure I'll slip it in, before they close it up." 

It had been easier with Kana, they had all known it was coming from early on. That was why Dave had not hesitated to help when she and his sister had asked for his help, and he was perfectly fine being the doting uncle to Roxy. He was going to spoil her rotten, like he was sure Kana would have if she'd had the time. 

T.Z., though, had seemed to be recovering from the brain tumor. Sure, getting it cut out had left her with one of those weird not-really-blind forms of blindness, but it had looked like it was going to go away and they had little Dirk because fuck it, Dave just couldn't tell T.Z. no. 

Dave had felt too young to be a dad, no less a single dad. He wasn't like his sister, who had been able to step into the role with ease, and he was sure Rose had known that. 

"I doubt I'll be able to get you any more presentable, brother dear." Unsaid was the fact that, for once, it would actually be expected for Dave to not be entirely smooth. 

 

He knocked tentatively at the door. John was a surprisingly good friend, and would watch Dirk occasionally; it helped, especially when John had his grand-nephew or granddaughter around. Dave knew Dirk deserved more than a life consistently being uprooted, and he tried sometimes to offer it, but he had movies and music to make and staying in one place... 

He might do it, if John ever said the right words. But it was hard after T.Z., and nobody understood but Rose. 

When John opened the door, Dave caught the sound of Rose reading what sounded to be probably her latest book (not yet sent to the publisher) to a rapt audience and the scent of what could only be Jade's cooking. 

Later, when the herd of six-year-olds were asleep, Roxy curled around the kitten-in-a-plastic-block he had snuck her, Rose asked Dave if he thought himself up to doing the art for her book. 

 

Rose stopped by with Roxy and Dirk the day the last book in the children's series they wrote together came out, to invite him out for a celebratory dinner. 

It was not an invitation she intended to let him refuse, and he knew it. 

"I know you haven't taken a break in writing that script to eat a proper meal in too long, Dave." 

Dave sighed, and hugged her. "I need a bath first." 

"..." Sniff. "Yes, you do. And wear a tuxedo." 

He was pleased, later, to realize she had intentionally made sure they were all overdressed for pizza. 

 

Years later, he watched the quartet play. Dirk thought of him more as a big brother than a father, and he was happy as Roxy's uncle; she shared his love of dead things, perhaps even felt it more honestly than he ever had. He had given her, piecemeal, his old collection, ignoring Rose's looks. 

Rose had countered by turning up, hugging him and announcing that she was borrowing Dirk for whatever reason she felt like making up this time. It worked, and sometimes Dave wondered if their children had figured things out but he never quite asked. Even with T.Z. and Kana years gone, and their children nearly done high school, it was still hard. 

He wished John and Jade had managed to stick around long enough to see this, too. Jane was starting to relax and he was sure that John would have been all for him encouraging her to explore with self-expression; hell, John had been the one to suggest him going to that award ceremony as his date in that rather lovely dress. (It had been, they agreed afterwards, possibly the best prank they had ever managed to pull, particularly since nobody figured it out until after they had hit the dance floor.) He was pretty sure John would approve of him helping Jane learn the finer points of cross-dressing as she asked. 

Dave knew T.Z. would be fully approving of Dirk's own adventures in wearing skirts, though he did it more for the sake of cosplay, and it was worth it to sometimes shirk work and just take Dirk and any of his friends nearby off to a con. 

 

Rose knew, when Dave finally was too old to live on his own without worrying the younger set, to simply invite her brother to move in with her because she was lonely. She knew her brother too well to think he would have accepted his slow physical decline as a reason, and besides, it had the extra benefit of being true. 

Even as gracefully as they had aged, time had still taken its toll on them. She felt confident that their children would be alright; Jane had gone out of her way to offer them jobs the moment she turned 21 and finally got control of her great-grandmother's company, and it had worked out well. She had good business sense. 

It was perhaps rather fortunate, in a way, that that meteor had landed on Betty Crocker. 

She felt Dave shift against her, asleep already despite it not being too far into the afternoon and the weather being pleasantly warm, and she knew it was nearly time. 

Rose loved her brother, and the thought of what was to come did not bother her. They would be going together, and she was content.

**Author's Note:**

> For the record I have no idea if Kana and T.Z. are reincarnations or what.


End file.
